I’ll be tossing in a little IR remote to fire off sounds I want to hear, and a potentiometer to control volume. If I get antsy, I may add a battery pack for portability over the micro usb cable. It could be fun to hide it around the house and drive the cats crazy with phone or remote- activated sounds.

A website is telling me to disable AdBlock before it will show content

Modified on: Fri, 13 May, 2016 at 1:45 PM

More and more websites display a message asking you to disable AdBlock to be able to access the website’s contents (e.g., videos or articles). If it’s a site you enjoy and visit frequently, you might consider subscribing to it, which will eliminate the ads on the site while supporting the content provider.

Have you disabled AdBlock but the site still asks you to disable your ad blocker?

This usually happens when the site is poorly written. Basically, it’s a bug in the code the site uses to check for ad blockers. Because of that, it affects all ad blockers, not just AdBlock.

If you absolutely need to use the site, try removing your ad blocker entirely. If that doesn’t help, there is nothing we or you can do to get around this. You can try notifying the site administrators if a contact is listed in the page footer, or just wait for them to figure it out and fix the bug.

This video, recently produced by the Houston Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security, dramatizes an active shooter incident in the workplace. Its purpose is to educate the public on how to respond during such an incident. Warning: The initial sequence in this video may be disturbing.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area; in most cases, active shooters use firearm(s) and there is no pattern to their selection of victims.”

Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Typically, the immediate deployment of law enforcement is required to stop the shooting and mitigate harm to victims. Since active shooter situations are often over within minutes, before law enforcement arrives on the scene, individuals must be both mentally and physically prepared to deal with an active shooter situation.

Your actions can make a difference for your safety and survival. Be aware and be prepared.

HOW TO RESPOND WHEN AN ACTIVE SHOOTER IS IN YOUR VICINITY

If you are to ever find yourself in the middle of an active shooter event, quickly determine the most reasonable way to protect your own life. Remember that employees are likely to follow the lead of managers during an active shooter situation. The plan doesn’t have to be complicated. You have three options that can make a difference: Run. Hide. Fight.

In preference and priority order, there are three general options or responses when one is confronted by an active shooter situation:

1. Run (First preference and priority)

Have an escape route and plan in mind

Leave your belongings behind

Keep your hands visible

2. Hide (Second preference and priority)

Hide in an area out of the shooter’s view

Block entry to your hiding place and lock the doors

Hide behind furniture if possible

Silence your cell phone

3. Fight (Third preference and priority)

If confronted directly and as a last resort when your life is in imminent danger

Attempt to incapacitate the shooter

Act with physical aggression, throw items and improvising weapons

Call 911 when it is safe to do so.

Information you should provide to the 911 operator or law enforcement includes:

Your location

Location of the active shooter

Number of shooters

Physical description of shooters

Number and type of weapons held by shooters

Number of potential victims at the location

Attempt a quick accounting of workers.

Given the nature of an active shooter incident, employees may or may not use designated assembly or muster locations

Supervisors should attempt a quick accounting of worker and building visitors as soon as feasible and a more detailed accounting toward or at the end of the incident

When law enforcement arrives:

Remain calm and follow instructions

Put down any items in your hands (i.e., bags, jackets)

Raise hands and spread fingers

Keep hands visible at all times

Avoid quick movements toward officers such as holding on to them for safety

Avoid pointing, screaming or yelling

Do not stop to ask officers for help or direction when evacuating

The active shooter incident will be a dynamic situation that evolves rapidly and demands immediate response from law enforcement to terminate the life-threatening situation. The immediate response of the first patrolmen or officer on scene is to take aggressive action to find and stop the shooter(s). Rescue efforts will be delayed until the danger can be either mitigated or eliminated.

Weapons Prohibition – Possession or use of firearms and other dangerous weapons on a federally owned or leased facility, including grounds, parking lots and buildings, is illegal as stated in 18 USC Chapter 44, Section 930 (a) and (b). Violators are subject to fine and/or imprisonment for periods up to five (5) years.

SECURITY AWARENESS, POST PARIS EVENT ON FRIDAY

FHWA HQ Employees and Contractors:

The following information is being forwarded to you for your situational awareness.

We would also like to highlight some information about the DOT Alert system discussed below. If you are not aware, this system will give you the ability to not only receive information like this on your work emails, but it will give you the option to receive important emergency messages and alerts such as this on any personal phone or email you elect to register to receive them on. Unfortunately we have identified an issue with the directory that will prevent a problem for a very small number of employees to register. We have identified the fix and it should be rectified by the end of the week. If you have problems registering in the system or have any other questions regarding the FHWA Transportation Security Program please feel free to contact Mr. Jeff King at 202-366-5280 or by email at jeffrey.king@dot.gov

DHS to Increase Security at Federal Facilities

On Monday, November 16, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security announced that security will be stepped up at federal buildings in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. These precautionary measures are to safeguard U.S. Government personnel, facilities, and visitors to those facilities. The Federal Protective Service (FPS) has been directed to enhance its presence and security at various U.S. Government buildings in Washington DC and other cities around the country.

At this time, there are no immediate or specific threats, nor any actionable information indicating a credible threat to any DOT facility or personnel.

The OST Office of Security (M-40) and Office of Intelligence, Security and Emergency Preparedness (S-60) is closely monitoring this situation and will provide updates as circumstances warrant.

DOT has an Alert system that allows employees and contractors to self-register your personal contact information to receive information from DOT during an emergency, even if you are not in the office. Registration is entirely voluntary and the information provided will be used for DOT Alert notifications only. To register visit the DOT Alerts Portal.

If you haven’t completed the annual Active Shooter training in TMS, please do so. Click here for additional information on How to Respond to an Active Shooter.

Finally, we remind all DOT employees to remain vigilant and exercise a heightened state of awareness and report any suspicious activities to FPS, local law enforcement or to building security.

If you observe people acting suspiciously, be prepared to answer the following questions when reporting suspicious activity:

WHAT is happening?

WHO is doing it?

WHERE is it taking place?

WHEN did you observe it?

WHY are you suspicious?

If you SEE Something, SAY Something!

Emergency Phone Numbers

DOT Headquarters (SEFC): 202-366-0333 or 202-366-0337

FAA Headquarters (10A): 202-267-8829

FAA Headquarters (10B): 202-267-0326

FPS (Nationwide): 1-877-437-7411

Local Law Enforcement: 911 (check your local listing)

If you have any questions or require any guidance on these increased measures, please contact David Stackleather, Associate Director, Physical and Technical Security, Office of Security, at (202) 366-9090, or via david.stackleather@dot.gov .

We’ve been asked this by a few people, so I figured this is a good place to respond:
Will PTVS (Python Tools for Visual Studio) come to VSCode?
The answer is YES! This will be a major focus next year. Expect full intellisense, debugging, profiling, pkg mgmt, unit test, virtual env, multiple interpreter, Jupyter, etc. support.
Disc: Python/R/Jupyter team lead